Tim Muddiman and the Strange - Paradise Runs Deeper
Tim Muddiman is a long-time associate of Gary Numan and works with the mightily underrated Pop Will Eat Itself. Unsurprisingly, this is an album of industrial-inflected, electronica-tinged alt.rock, albeit with a slight twist of goth, a soupcon of darkwave and a shot of arena-bothering grandiosity.
On first listen, I was well impressed but familiarity breeds if not contempt, then a certain indifference.In general, the songs are decent enough. They are well constructed and well played. There’s just a lack of variety and it settles into a mid-paced plod. On both Wildwood Stones and Strangers, Muddiman takes the electro-goth-goes-new-romantic-metal template of The Faint and makes something that is bordering on the enthralling. Oversea-Underworld steps up the pace and the heaviness and is all the better for it. But those are the best songs here. Elsewhere, I can’t help but think of a polite, almost neutered Nine Inch Nails.
Muddiman clearly has talent and I want to like this. It makes a decent background noise but this can’t grab my attention. If Muddiman just let rip and let the music get down and dirty from time to time, he could make something great. As it is, this is just, well, ok.
6/10
